A rolling bearing arrangement of this type is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,492,419 which is an illustrative tapered roller bearing. The snap ring is a securing element, which holds an axial spacer disk in position and secures it between the inner rings. At the same time, the snap ring holds sealing elements in position.
The invention also relates to rolling bearing arrangements, in which individual parts consisting of two rows of rolling bodies held in cages and with inner rings are preassembled into a structural unit and are captively secured to one another by the snap ring. Particularly in the case of heavy motor vehicles, the axle journals on which the inner rings of the rolling bearing arrangement are seated are designed with stepped diameters. Correspondingly, the inner rings of a pairing in the rolling bearing arrangement have, with respect to one another, different nominal dimensions of the usually internally cylindrical seat for the shaft or journal. The arrangements in the prior art are relatively complicated and are not suitable for pairings of inner rings with substantial differences in the average diameter of the shaft seats with respect to one another.